A post on NeoGAF offers purportedly leaked details and screenshots on the Syndicate remake long rumored (or perhaps confirmed) to be in the works at Starbreeze Studios (thanks nin via Kotaku). According to the post, the images and info were posted to EA's Origin store, though if that's the case, they have since been removed. They also note rumors that the game will be formally unveiled in the next issue of the European magazine Gamereactor. Here's the description they offer, which mentions "a unique action shooter" and a "Visceral FPS Experience":

Syndicate is the re-imagination of a cult classic franchise from 1993 - a unique action shooter set in a not too distant future, where Business is War.

2069 – No longer governed by politicians, the developed world is divided up into regions controlled by megacorporations known as Syndicates. These Syndicates have revolutionized how the consumer interacts with the digital world. No longer does the consumer require a device to access the worldˇ¦s data and control their technology, they can do this at the blink of an eye via neural chip implant. Civilians flocked to be ˇ§chipˇ¦dˇ¨ and enjoy all that their selected Syndicate has to offer; housing, medical, banking, insurance, education, entertainment and jobs. One complete package. One complete lifestyle. In return, the Syndicates gained unprecedented insights, and control, over the individual and their behaviour. With little governmental oversight, business has become war. The Syndicates will stop at nothing for ultimate market dominance. At the front line of this war are the Agents, the Syndicateˇ¦s bio-engineered and chip-augmented enforcers. They can breach anything in the wired world including their enemies, their weapons and the environment that surrounds them, making them the most efficient and deadly technological weapons in the world.

Take on the role of Miles Kilo, Eurocorpˇ¦s latest prototype agent, and embark on a brutal action adventure of corruption and revenge.

• Chip Enhanced Gameplay: Slow down time, see through walls, and breach your enemy and everything digital in the world with Dart vision – A neural DART6 chip implant that allows you to interface directly with the Dataverse.

• 4-Player Online Co-op: Assemble your Syndicate for global domination. A 4-player, online co-op experience like no other, with chip enhanced gameplay and 9 missions re-imagined from the original Syndicate.

Hey if Starbreeze is making it there's a chance it could end up quite entertaining. Although I have to say that Dark Athena fell apart towards the end. But I'm always up for a new cyberpunk first person game, especially if it may have some interesting RPG elements.

Regarding the tangential X-Com bitching, the catch there is that all of those games have been shit since Terror from the Deep. Even TftD wasn't super awesome so the original is really the only purely excellent game in the whole series! Enforcer and Interceptor were already shooters and not so great. Maybe the new game will at least be better than those. Anyway, there have been a ton of X-Com tact-strat clones so go get your fix there if the DOS games aren't doing it for you anymore.

I don't think Syndicate will necessarily suffer from being turned into an FPS, provided that they retain the core elements of the series: squad-based combat, augmentations, research and large, open-ended levels. Now, if they remove all that stuff and turn it into a linear and highly scripted shooter like CoD, that will be problematic.

Afterall, I loved the original C&C games but was happy to see Renegade approach the series from a FPS perspective. And I enjoyed Sam & Max in 2D but was happy to see the series approached in 3D. And Far Cry was set on a luscious green island but I was happy to see Far Cry 2 taken to the desert. All these games people objected to but all - imo - turned out to be good-to-great.

There's a pretty big difference between the games you listed and games like Fallout 3, XCOM and Syndicate. Renegade was never considered a sequel or reboot of the C&C series. It was a spin-off released while more traditional sequels were still being made. The new Sam & Max games being 3D doesn't change the fact that they are still adventure games. Similarly, the change of setting in Far Cry 2 was just that; a change of setting. It was still an FPS and not fundamentally different from the original.

People tend to get upset when a game/series they enjoyed gets a sequel/reboot in a genre they don't enjoy. For example, if CoD 15 ends up being a kart racing game, I imagine that most of the fanbase will be pissed off. It doesn't matter if it happens to be the best kart racing game of all time. Fans wanted another FPS, not a kart racer. Therefore, it's not at all unreasonable for people to get upset when their favorite turn-based RPG or strategy game gets turned into an FPS.

I can understand the criticism but I think it's far too early to write this title off yet. Afterall, I loved the original C&C games but was happy to see Renegade approach the series from a FPS perspective. And I enjoyed Sam & Max in 2D but was happy to see the series approached in 3D. And Far Cry was set on a luscious green island but I was happy to see Far Cry 2 taken to the desert. All these games people objected to but all - imo - turned out to be good-to-great.

I very much enjoyed the original Syndicate but need to see a lot more about this game - particularly some videos - to see whether I'm interested in this sequel. But after such a lengthy time since the originals I understand that this will be a very different game.

Beelzebud wrote on Sep 11, 2011, 14:12:First they came for Fallout, but I did not play Fallout, so I said nothing...

I think what you mean is first they came for Fallout, but even though I didn't play Fallout I whined endlessly on the internet about it. Then Fallout 3 came out and was incredible, and I put 80 hours into it, all the while lamenting that it wasn't exactly the same. Then New Vegas came out and I preordered it while talking about how the bugs would kill it. Then I told everyone I canceled my preorder. Then I complained that Amazon didn't get my preorder to me overnight. Then I put 120 hours into it, all the while saying it wasn't worth my money for the bugs. Then I bought all the DLC, especially the Dr. Venture DLC, all the while saying DLC is "left-out content."

Then they came for X-COM, and I repeated the process.Then they came for Syndicate, and I repeated the process.

All I want from a new Syndicate is a way to take over the minds over everyone around me and command a warm of dozens of people that picked shotguns off from the dead. Not sure today's technology can deliver that. But Syndicate was a tactics game, not a strategy game, and can still work very nicely in first person and still be a monumental amount of fun.

Thanks for proving my point, to the letter. You didn't play Fallout so you didn't give a shit if they removed the core Fallout gameplay, and you were happy with a watered down action game with RPG-Lite aspects. They could have called Fallout3 whatever they wanted, and you still would have liked it. Well not all of us found the need to put 80 hours into that pile of garbage. I put over 100 into Fallout and probably 200 in to Fallout 2.

As long as the publishers make good money from the AHD crowd, we will make those games, because our employers say so. And if we had enough, we quit and start making little indie games, which are becoming more popular every year. So ... dont fret, just ignore the majors and their mass products.

The Developers

Dear Devs,

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately I do not accept your answer and thus I am forced to release a pack of rabid ferrets in your offices. Also, I am lacing all of your buildings' water supplies with 50 thousand pounds of Ex Lax. Have fun trying to code from the toilet while bleeding from the infected scratches the ferrets give you.

Sincerely,Prez

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

StingingVelvet wrote on Sep 11, 2011, 13:52:If it's the gameplay stupid then it shouldn't matter what it's called as long as it's a good game. Given Starbreeze is making it I think that outcome is pretty likely.

OK, fine. But Syndicate (and X-Com) was defined by it's atmosphere and gameplay. It may indeed be a good fps, but as far as I'm concerned, it isn't a Syndicate game, just like the new X-Com isn't an X-Com game. I'd love to see both those games remade and updated, but I doubt you would get a "Finally!" out of any fan of either when they realized their beloved game was being "re-imagined" as a FPS.

I don't think anyone is arguing it's going to be a real Syndicate sequel. I think I'm arguing that is irrelevant to it being a good game.

Well... since I have never really cared for RTS games, and I don't play them... this doesn't bother me, personally, at all... same goes for xcom. Don't get me wrong... RTS games are just not my cup of tea.

Of course, I can understand why the fans of those games would be pissed... that would be like taking my favorite RPG (Ultima Underworld) and turning it into an RTS, instead of remaking it... and I'd be extremely angry, too.

That said, if they review good as FPSes go... I will pick them up. If they're shit... I won't.

/shrug

"Did you even read cutters post or are you just suffering from rectal cranial inversion." - RedEye9

Beelzebud wrote on Sep 11, 2011, 14:12:First they came for Fallout, but I did not play Fallout, so I said nothing...

I think what you mean is first they came for Fallout, but even though I didn't play Fallout I whined endlessly on the internet about it. Then Fallout 3 came out and was incredible, and I put 80 hours into it, all the while lamenting that it wasn't exactly the same. Then New Vegas came out and I preordered it while talking about how the bugs would kill it. Then I told everyone I canceled my preorder. Then I complained that Amazon didn't get my preorder to me overnight. Then I put 120 hours into it, all the while saying it wasn't worth my money for the bugs. Then I bought all the DLC, especially the Dr. Venture DLC, all the while saying DLC is "left-out content."

Then they came for X-COM, and I repeated the process.Then they came for Syndicate, and I repeated the process.

All I want from a new Syndicate is a way to take over the minds over everyone around me and command a warm of dozens of people that picked shotguns off from the dead. Not sure today's technology can deliver that. But Syndicate was a tactics game, not a strategy game, and can still work very nicely in first person and still be a monumental amount of fun.

StingingVelvet wrote on Sep 11, 2011, 13:52:If it's the gameplay stupid then it shouldn't matter what it's called as long as it's a good game. Given Starbreeze is making it I think that outcome is pretty likely.

OK, fine. But Syndicate (and X-Com) was defined by it's atmosphere and gameplay. It may indeed be a good fps, but as far as I'm concerned, it isn't a Syndicate game, just like the new X-Com isn't an X-Com game. I'd love to see both those games remade and updated, but I doubt you would get a "Finally!" out of any fan of either when they realized their beloved game was being "re-imagined" as a FPS.